FAMILY TIME. Janet Kurtz, an Eau Claire native and author, has immortalized a number of family tales and more in her latest book. Kurtz will host a reading at the L.E. Phillips Senior Center on March 27, free to attend.  (Submitted photos)

The family cabin was the perfect setting to tell family stories, bringing their characters to the next generation. For Janet (Jan) Kurtz, such included her only brother, Steven, who passed away at age 30; her first husband, Jim, killed in a motorcycle accident in 1978 after two years of marriage, leaving her with her one-year-old baby son Greg; and her parents Donald and Phyllis, active in the Eau Claire community, who passed away respectively in 2013 and 2020.

Jan, a long-time resident of Brainerd, Minnesota, where she taught college Spanish for many years, will be back in her hometown of Eau Claire this month for a reading of her new book, The Heart of My Soul: Tales of Five Generations at the Family Cabin, at the L.E. Phillips Senior Center (1616 Bellinger St., Eau Claire). The public is also invited to share their intergenerational cabin stories at the free-to-attend reading, slated for Thursday, March 27, from 10:30am to noon. Jan’s books will be available for purchase, including her debut book Northern Shores Southern Borders: Revelations of a Bilingual Life.

Writing the book was a labor of love. It is a compilation of diaries and journal entries kept by her parents, the guest books signed by visitors, and the funny – and sometimes not-so-funny – stories experienced and retold around the dinner table or the campfire.

Years before his death in 2013, Don asked Jan if she would like to take on the family land and cabin, nestled on Lake Julia near Three Lakes Wisconsin in the Nicolet National Forest. She unequivocally said YES. Despite the high maintenance location on a steep hill, lack of indoor plumbing, and spotty cell phone/internet coverage, Jan loves the feeling she gets every spring while opening it back up for the season. Nature. The trees. The birds. The wind. The water. The fish. All of it. After all, a Spanish teacher by training, she had named the place Las Sobras (translated as "The Leftovers," for a variety of reasons which become clear in the book). There’s a photo of said sign in the book to prove it.

Though her second husband Robert and her only son Greg (along with his wife Cindy and their children Ella and James) enjoy spending time at the cabin, none want the place after Jan is gone. So, her latest book is a legacy of land and family going into the future. 

While writing homages to loved ones may sound sad, Jan’s book is anything but. It’s full of funny stories like how Aunt Wilma did not follow dad Don’s directions for if a bear showed up; when Jan and her son caught a fish with their bare hands (yes, their bare hands); and, of course, the antics of her grandchildren, and the joy they bring.

Writing the book was a labor of love. It is a compilation of diaries and journal entries kept by her parents, the guest books signed by visitors, and the funny – and sometimes not-so-funny – stories experienced and retold around the dinner table or the campfire. Jan also perused hundreds of photos and albums, hand-selecting the 190 images that were ultimately included in the 222-page book.

Join Jan on Thursday, March 27, beginning 10:30am at the L.E. Phillips Senior Center in Eau Claire to hear her stories, and to share your own. 

The Heart of My Soul: Tales of Five Generations at the Family Cabin is available for purchase in the area at The Local Store (205 N. Dewey St.) and the Chippewa Valley Museum in Eau Claire. Learn more about Janet Kurtz and purchase her work through her publisher and website www.janetkurtz.com.